LaLu Week 2017
by humorousandparanoid
Summary: This is really late, I know, but it's here. Day 1-Masquerade Day 2-War Day 3-Tears Day 4-Protect Day 5-Summer Day 6-Falling Day 7-Father
1. Masquerade

LaLu Week 2017

Day 1 Masquerade

They all wore masks. Every single member of Fairy Tail, every single day. All of them were broken and hurt in some way. Most because of the deaths of their families when they were young. Some were worse than that.

Erza, for example, was an orphan stolen from her village, forced into a horrible labour camp, watching as many people, both who she knew and who she didn't, were taken only to never be seen again. She managed to escape, but the cost was her friends. Erza put on a mask that she was strong and sure, when in reality she is terrified that she isn't strong enough, that she will make a mistake that will cost her or her newfound family greatly.

Walking through the guild was like walking around a masquerade ball, you only saw what the members wanted you to see, all the while knowing that there was something more behind the mask, more to be known, more to be seen.

Many members tended to confide in other members they were close with, or even who they believed would listen. Erza spoke to her team, Cana went to Lucy about Gildarts, Gray went to Juvia over certain matters, Levy whispered to Jet and Droy on bad nights, and even turned to Gajeel on occasion, and most of the dragonslayers had their exceeds. Lucy and Laxus had part of their past practically thrown in the guild's faces, but usually preferred to keep to themselves.

Eventually, though, the two of them had to break.

For Lucy, she broke often and usually in the middle of the night and couldn't handle the stuffiness her apartment made her feel during those times, so she left and walked along the cobblestone roads that shone under the light of the moon. She'd done this an innumerable amount of times since arriving in Magnolia, but never once had she come across anyone else on her walks. She had always made sure to walk the quiet market roads because there wasn't a possibility of coming across a mage returning home as the residential area was in the other direction.

But one night, lost in thought and her eyes blurry from unshed tears, she crossed into residential area, she was seen by another team from the guild.

"Lucy, what are you doing here?" Lucy cursed her luck at the sound of Evergreen's confused voice as she looked at them, wiping discreetly, she hoped, at her eyes.

"I was just heading home." She lied smoothly, despite the fact that she was clearly wearing baggy sweats and a large sweater, showing that she had obviously not been out on a job like they had been and that she had already been home earlier that night, her throat sounding clogged as she spoke.

She could see the doubt in the team's eyes, other than Bixlow's, though he did frown slightly, but none said anything. "Walk with us for a bit, then." Evergreen stated instead. Lucy didn't want to, she might let her worries spill out from her with other people around her, but she had no reason to decline.

They soon came to the cross roads where they would all separate, Evergreen, Bixlow and Freid all going straight in the direction of the dormitories, Laxus would be going right, heading out into the forest in that direction where his dragon senses won't pick up the rest of Magnolia. It was the same reason Natsu and Gajeel lived out of town. Wendy's senses aren't as strong yet, and the dormitories are far enough out of the way that she doesn't get bothered by Magnolia or the other members in the dormitory, but she'll probably move out of town in the next couple years. Lucy would be, well, should be, heading left in the direction of the river. She knew that once the others were gone she'd start aimlessly walking again, she hadn't felt like going home yet.

Once Evergreen, Freid, and Bixlow were a ways up the road, Laxus spoke.

"I know you aren't going home, Girly." Lucy opened her mouth to retort, only to have Laxus begin again, "Come to my place if you won't go home. You shouldn't be walking around at night without your keys."

Lucy scrunched her eyebrows as she looked down to her hips, only to realize that she had, in fact, been walking around these last hours without her pain form of defense. She didn't believe that anything would happen, but she had been proven wrong dozens of times before in her life.

Lucy looked back up to see Laxus begin to walk away from her. She stared for a few moments, still debating, before she hopped into a jog to catch up to Laxus' long strides. She noticed that Laxus slowed his pace slightly once she was beside him, not enough to be obvious, but enough that it was easier to keep up with him.

Within ten minutes, Lucy was sitting in Laxus' dimly lit living room while she listened to Laxus himself move about in the kitchen. Lucy heard the familiar clank of cups being placed on the counter and the rush of a faucet running. She sat for another few minutes, quietly taking in her surroundings. Laxus seemed to like brown for his furniture, and had very few decorative objects. Lucy was wondering if it was that way for the entire house or if he only kept his decorating to areas he frequented when a steaming mug came into her line of sight and a sweet smell wafted to her nose.

"Thank you," Lucy whispered, her voice refusing to break the peaceful silence of the house, as she reached for the mug still in Laxus' hand.

Laxus sat at the other side of the small couch, enough space to fit a small person, but close enough that, if Lucy wanted, she could reach out to him. They sat in silence, the only sounds being the groans of the couch when one of them moved, or the occasional sip of their tea.

Lucy wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not, but Laxus had been a great comfort to her that night. Lucy didn't like to be alone, not after all her years of neglect from her father, but sometimes she needed silence, which she couldn't get from a lot of people. Many people would question her and try to help, which wasn't what she wanted or needed. She had long since accepted what had happened in her past, and was coming to accept the more recent death of her father, sometimes all she needed was to mourn for her father, and what her life might have been. She just needed the comfort of someone's presence, and the quiet to think.

Making her way to Laxus' house out in the forest in the middle of the night became a not-quite-uncommon occurrence on the nights she broke.

Laxus, on the other hand, has only broken once, to Lucy's knowledge.

It was just after the Grand Magic Games. Laxus and Lucy had gotten closer over the short time that she had begun randomly showing up at his house at all hours of the night. Lucy was walking the now familiar path to Laxus' home, she wasn't upset, she just wanted to check on him. Coming up to the door, just as she raised her loosely closed fist to knock, she heard a crash. Forgoing the knocking, all she felt was worry as she rushed through the door.

In the living room, where she had felt so much comfort in recent weeks, crouched the reason for her comfort. Laxus had his back to the door, his head bent towards the ground and his hands at the sides of his head, fingertips pressing into his hair. Lucy stood quietly for a moment, believing that he might not know she was there, before remembering that he was a dragonslayer, second generation or not. Even if he hadn't noticed her approaching his house due to his mind distracting him, he would have noticed her barrelling into the house. Lucy surveyed the room as she carefully closed the door. The crash she heard seemed to be one of the taller side tables Laxus kept near the chairs that were too far from the coffee table to use it.

Lucy slowly made her way into the room, prepared to back off, even leave, if Laxus did so much as hint towards that. But he did nothing, so Lucy continued walking towards him. The closer she got, the more she noticed about him. His limbs seemed to shake every so often, like he was stuck in his mind and trying to get away; he seemed intent on keeping his breathing even, the breaths coming deep and slow. Once she was right beside him she saw that his eyes we screwed so tightly shut that it honestly looked painful to her.

Lucy knelt down, being sure to make enough noise that Laxus knew for sure that she was there. From there, Lucy wasn't sure what she should do. She didn't know what Laxus would find comforting, or what would make him draw further into himself. She bit her lip as she thought about the first time she had been to his house, and everytime since then. The only things that were the same everytime were the living room, and that tea that Laxus always made for her, as well as Laxus himself.

Lucy made her way into the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards until she found the mugs, and three different containers filled with the tea leaves, in the same cupboard she found a clear glass teapot and steeper. She put the kettle, which was on the counter, on the stove to boil then went back to the tea leaves to try and figure out which was the one to use. Several leaf, sugar and honey, which she found behind the sugar when she took it out, mixtures later, she got the tea the closest she could. Not too sweet, but nothing close to bitter, not an overly potent scent, and the colour to a semi-clear reddish-brown.

When Lucy finally re-entered the living room, the first thing she notices was that Laxus had made his way to his usual spot on the couch. Lucy felt a bit of relief before she got closer and saw that his eyes were glazed over and that he didn't even seem to notice her approach and quickly felt that bit of worry return. She made her way around the coffee table and placed her tea onto its surface before moving and sitting a little closer to Laxus. Lucy hesitantly placed her still warm fingers against his arm, him blinking out of his daze at the contact.

When Laxus' eyes made contact with Lucy's own, she gave him a small smile and lifted the cup of tea in front of her, "I tried to make the tea you make for me. It isn't quite right, but I think it's close."

The corners of Laxus' lips seemed to quirk up for a moment before accepting the tea from Lucy. She went to move to the spot at the other end of the couch but Laxus' sudden and loose grip on her elbow silently told her that he wanted her to stay where she was. When she met his eyes and nodded as she settle back into the seat he let his hand fall loose to his lap.

They both sat in silence as they drank their tea, Lucy fully willing to do the same that Laxus has done for her in past weeks, understanding that he wanted silence and, if need be, will let him talk as she listens, or whatever else he may need. He has let her lean into him and she quietly wept, or rubbed slow, calming circles as she loudly cried her heart out, stayed quiet as she ranted about every little detail in her life.

When Laxus finished his tea, they continued to sit in silence as his hands fidgeted. Lucy finished her tea soon after, which usually meant that she would leave unless it was a particularily bad night where she did feel the need to cry or rant or talk. Lucy wasn't sure what she should do, should she leave or stay, she didn't know what Laxus wanted her to do. After another few seconds, she took Laxus' fidgeting to mean that he wanted her leave, so she stood and turned around to wave and give what she hoped was an encouraging smile then turned again for the door.

Her first step, however, was interrupted as she was suddenly pulled back. It was strange, she felt like she was falling, but slowly. The feeling ended quickly enough as she was back onto the cushion of the couch. Lucy shook her head slightly to get her mind to catch up with her body. Her mind had just barely caught up when Lucy felt arms wrap around her and pull her close as Laxus buried his face in the space between her neck and shoulder. Lucy was tense for a few second before she relaxed back onto Laxus' chest and his arms seemed to tighten. Lucy smiled and bent her arms to brush her hands along Laxus' arms. She'd stay as long as he needed her.

Somehow, even though the two barely knew eachother only a few months prior, they both seemed to be exactly what the other needed to let down their masks.

 **Yes, these are really late, and to be completely honest, I thought about LaLu Week back in November or December, but nothing was up, and then it completely slipped my mind until about a month or so ago. Hopefully, I'll have all the chapters for this done and up within the next month.**

 **But, My Muses, let me know what you thought, and if you have any suggestions, tell me about it and be my inspiration.**


	2. War

LaLu Week 2017

Day 2 War

Laxus felt a war his entire life, a war to know what he should do. Should he follow his father, or stay in the Fairy Tail guild; accept the guild as it is, or make it great again himself. Sometimes, he made the right choice, but, sometimes, he made what he thought was the right choice at the time, and later proved to be the wrong one.

Laxus never wanted to make that mistake again. So, when he began to feel the stirrings of another war in him, he ignored it. He ignored it, but it forced its way to the front of his mind, to the pit of his stomach. Then, he fought against it, he fought hard, but it fought back and came back stronger every time. After a time, Laxus simply accepted it, but refused to act upon it.

Why Laxus felt he had to fight the guild for the affections of one Lucy Heartphelia, well, that was anyone's guess. Why he couldn't simply have and unrequited crush on the peppy blonde, now that he thought about it, was likely the fault of the dragon in him. There was one thing he knew for certain, and that was he wouldn't fight anyone for Lucy's feelings.

However, that didn't stop Laxus from getting closer to the girl.

Over the next few months, Laxus had learned a lot about the Spirit Summoner. He found that, though everyone in the guild had lived hard lives, Lucy was one of the only ones aside from himself that had experienced the hardships from a loved one, someone who was supposed to be there for, and support them. He quickly discovered that her blatant refusal to be upset about her past was one of the more prominent reasons that people, both in and out of the guild, thought of her as the Light of the Guild. The things he already knew about her were set into stone the longer they talked. Such things as her bravery, her wit, her compassion, her strength.

He also found that the more he learned about her, the more he wanted to fight for her.

One day, Lucy invited Laxus on a mission with her.

"Mira says that you've been in the area before, and I'm not overly great at navigating through mountains on my own." Lucy's voice quieted when Laxus looked behind her to Mirajane, only to see her wink at him, seemingly in encouragement.

The excitement that lit up Lucy's dark eyes when he accepted forced his need to fight for her to resurface.

It was getting harder and harder for him to refuse it.

The mission was a simple one, he knew she could handle it on her own. As he watched the girl turn the wrong way again, he also knew that she hadn't been lying when she said she couldn't navigate through the mountains. If he hadn't have come along, she likely would have gotten herself hoplessly lost by now.

"I'd find my way back once the stars were out. I can read those as easily as I can read a book." The blush across her puffed up cheeks was almost too much for Laxus to handle. He began to think that her pout was within his top three faces of Lucy.

Which was when the trolls swarmed them. The town at the base of the mountain thought that the trolls were getting too close and wanted mages to force them away from the town. The town mayor mentioned that this has been done many times in the past, usually once every five to ten years.

Trolls weren't overly strong, and were kind of stupid, but they fought in large packs, which was why people usually dealt with them in small teams. But Lucy was an entire army on her own. Laxus stood back to watch Lucy at work. She was smooth and graceful, which Laxus thinks is likely because of her noble background; careful and calculated, which he believed was because of her experience as a mage; strong and beautiful, Laxus knew that this was purely who Lucy was.

Quickly enough, Lucy forced back the trolls, and they scurried further up into the mountains. Though, Laxus felt he could have watched her fight for an eternity longer.

When Lucy returned to Laxus' side and gave him a look, he merely offered a small smile.

"I knew you could handle it." Lucy beamed at his words.

Her clothes were a little worse for wear, especially her jacket, where one of the sleeves was torn almost clean off, but she didn't seem to be wounded from whatever grabbed her there. They began to walk back down the mountain, more careful than before since it was getting dark, when Laxus noticed her shiver. He didn't wait two second before he dropped his coat on her shoulders. She looked confused, but thankful. Lucy walked slower down the mountain because of it, but their pace picked back up once they were on stable ground.

When they were given the reward, Lucy tried to saparate out Laxus' share, but he closed the bag of jewels saying she dealt with all the trolls, so she deserved all the money.

"But you came here, you navigated us, like you said, I would have been hoplessly lost without you here."

"Making sure you come back to me isn't something to be paid for." Laxus said easily, calmly even, like he was simply saying 'hey, how are you?' He wasn't sure why that was what escaped his mouth, but he was annoyed that it did. He sped off ahead, refusing to talk about it.

Once on the train back to Magnolia he fell asleep to deal with his motion sickness, Lucy didn't talk about what he had aciddentally let slip.

The next day, in front of the guild, Laxus was just crossing the gateway when someone shouted at him.

"Hey, Laxus!" He turned to see Lucy standing directly behind him. "Go on a date with me."

At that moment, the war inside him fizzled into nothing. He didn't have to fight in a war to make his choice.

 **Not my greatest story, I will admit, but I hope you all liked it anyways.**


	3. Tears

LaLu Week 2017

Day 3 Tears

It's only been a couple of weeks since the end of the battle against Tartaros, since Fairy Tail's disbandment, since Lucy lost Aquarius. Lucy has been wandering aimlessly from place to place since she left Magnolia, feeling she had nothing left for her there, nothing for her anywhere. She could join another guild, like she was sure many of the others have, but everytime she looked at the mark on her hand she just couldn't bring myself to walk into a guild and join, afraid that the last reminder of her only family would disappear.

As she sluggishly moved through a thick forest, occasionally tripping over tree roots, Lucy saw a clearing. Changing her direction slightly, she made her way to it. Once she had broken through the trees and was in the clearing she took a quick look around, and saw a pond surrounded by lush grass with the setting sun in the background, not far from the pond there is a log laying on the ground, likely from people who had camped in the clearing before. She made her way to the pond, but before she could even make it to the water's edge she saw how clean, clear and pure the water was, even in the dim light and her hand brushes against the broken key of the mermaid, her eyes immediately begin to fill with tears of anguish and loss.

She forces herself forward, tears gliding down Lucy's cheeks, and collapses to her knees just before the grass turns into dirt, then water. She unconciously pulled the mermaid's key from her key ring before clasping it in both hands, droplets of the salt water tears falling from Lucy's bowed head onto both the key and her hands.

Lucy wasn't sure how long she sat there, crying once again over her loss, but when she opened her eyes again the sun had set and the moon was high. Her reflection in the water doesn't look well, either. She saw bright red, puffy eyes that are somehow also very dark from the bags under them, her face is splotchy and she looked exhausted, as well as hopeless.

Lucy heard the sound of breaking twigs and moving brush and turned towards it, only to see a group of shadows come into the clearing. She saw the moonlight reflecting off their eyes, causing them to stick out against their silhouetted bodies. Their eyes scan the clearing, eventually falling on her and, if she wasn't mistaken, the eyes widened when they did.

Not that she cared right now, anyways. She was still too busy wallowing in her own sadness to care.

Lucy turned back to staring into the crystaline waters as fish glided through beneath the surface, paying the strangers no mind.

At least, until one of them tapped her shoulder.

 _What the devil do they-_ Her thought didn't get a chance to finish as she turned to look at the person, only to realize it wasn't a stranger like she first thouht. Her furrowed brow softened and her eyes grew wide.

"Freid?" Lucy's voice was barely above a whisper. Freid, too, looked to be just as surprised to see her. He was still bent towards her, his mint coloured hair was loose from its ties and was falling over his shoulder, almost like a curtain blocking them from the rest of the world. The moon was behind him, reflecting an off white glow from his hair.

 _He looks almost angelic._ Lucy couldn't help the thought, nor the small blush that cast itself upon her cheeks and nose because of it.

Lucy tore her eyes from his single visible one and looked behind him to see that the other people were indeed Laxus, Bixlow, and Evergreen.

Her mouth opened, but no noise came from it. Lucy cleared her throat, only then noticing how clogged it was. She tried again, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for somewhere to go." Evergreen was the one who answered, and in her voice rang the same sadness that Lucy felt. Lucy made an attempt at a smile that she hoped told Evergreen it was similar for her.

Freid spoke next, "I'm going to gather some firewood." Laxus nodded and sat down a few feet away from Lucy, just around the bend of the pond from her. Evergreen walked back into the forest with Freid, and Bixlow sat midway between Laxus and Lucy.

It was silent between them for a few minutes before Bixlow spoke. "Why are you here alone, Cosplayer? Figured the next time we crossed paths you'd be with your team."

Lucy inhaled sharply as Bixlow's words unknowingly stabbed her. From the corner of her eye she saw Laxus studying her reaction.

Lucy rubbed her thumbs against the broken key still in her hands and felt her eyes gloss over again as she answered, "Natsu," her voice cracked before she could even finish the name, so she coughed and tried again, "Natsu, he left before we even knew the guild was disbanding. He wrote a letter to get me to tell the guild for him." Lucy's eyes flickered up to see Bixlow's lips in a tight line, Laxus' usual frown was accompanied by furrowed eyebrows.

"Coward." She heard Laxus say, and she let out an unamused laugh that told them she agreed.

"Well, the next day, the guild was disbanded, so I didn't have to tell anyone." Lucy continued, staring into the pond still, "Gray left pretty quick after the news, and I ran into Juvia a few minutes after that." Lucy noticed Freid and Evergreen set a pile of firewood and a small pile of food near the log close by. "She said that Gray had gone through something all over again during his fight, she wouldn't tell me what, but said that it was her fault. I don't know if that was true, but from the amount of guilt I could see in her eyes as she said that, I know that she truly believes it was. She then told me that to make up for it she was going to follow after Gray."

Bixlow stood and began walking towards Freid and Evergreen. Laxus stood as well, but didn't walk away, instead he went to Lucy and offered her a hand when he noticed she wasn't making a move to get up. Lucy stared at the hand for a few seconds before placing one of her own in it, keeping the key enclosed in the other, Laxus pulled her up. Lucy hissed in pain as her knees protested the movement, likely from staying in one position for as long as she did. Laxus' brows furrowed in worry, but Lucy waved it off and they went to join the others. Lucy didn't take notice of how Laxus' hands hovered near her when she wobbled her first several steps.

"What about the others?" Laxus asked as he settled onto the log. He used his lightning magic to start their fire, causing Lucy to jump in surprise, and the others to chuckle at her reaction. Lucy sat down on the ground beside Laxus' legs and leaned back against the log.

"Erza, I guess she went through something that reminded her of her time in the Tower of Heaven, so she asked if she could go her own way because she needed time to herself. Wendy wasn't sure what she should do and both Charle and I worried for her traveling without having a place to go back to, so I suggested she go join Shelia at Lamia Scale, they became good friends at the games. She asked me if I wanted to join her, but I'm not ready to join a new guild yet. We did travel on foot together for a bit, but we went our separate ways about a week ago. I'm not sure about anyone else."

They were silent a few moments before Evergreen sat on the log between Bixlow and Freid, Freid on the edge of the log and Bixlow on the log beside Lucy, "At least you aren't completely alone Lucy, you still have your spirits."

Lucy knew that Evergreen meant nothing by her words, they were meant to be encouraging and friendly, but Lucy couldn't stop the tears in her eyes, nor the shake in her shoulders as she tried to hold the tears back from escaping.

Nor could she stop the break in her voice as she spoke, "Most of them, anyways." Lucy felt everyone's stares more than noticed them as she lifted her hand in front of her, opening it to reveal her broken Zodiac key. She heard Evergreen's quiet gasp, and everyone else's sharp intake of breath.

Freid was the first to speak, "Miss Lucy, how did this happen?"

Lucy's voice shook as she answered him. "You probably don't know most of what happened since you all were basically in a coma, but during the fight against Tartaros, the enemy used a magic or something to pull everyone into the walls and ground, from what I understand. For some reason, I escaped that, but since I was the last enemy of theirs, they all came after me, most of which were pretty low level, but eventually I had Aquarius, Loke, and Aries out. I was up against mulitiple enemies, and just one of them forced Loke and Aries back to the spirit world and another was able to heavily injure Aquarius." Lucy's throat felt thick with saliva, and she swallowed before she continued, "Just as Jackal was about to kill me, Aquarius was able to pull me away, that was when Aquarius told me I had the power to summon the Celestial Spirit King, which is what I did." The tears Lucy had been holding back escaped and trickled down her face as her fist closed around the key again.

"You summoned the Sprit King." Evergreen whispered, eyes wide with shock.

Lucy nodded, and continued with shuddering breaths, "I was able to for only a few minutes, and during that time he was able to get everyone out of the walls. But it came at a price. In order to summon him, I had to break one of my Zodiac keys, one I had a strong bond with."

Lucy felt a large hand drop onto her head and the fingers rub at her hair in sympathy. She looked up and over her shoulder with watery eyes to see Bixlow with a comforting smile on his lips with his totems floating around his head. She smiled in return and leaned into his hand, knowing that he truly understood how it felt for her, his magic being similar to hers in a way.

"You should join us, Lucy." Evergreen announced suddenly after a few minutes of only listening to the fire crackle. "I mean, at least for a while, and only if you want."

Lucy looked at her, surprised at the offer, before a small smile crossed her face, "I'll think about it."

Lucy saw that Evergreen was going to say more, and also saw the elbow in the side that she got from Freid that stopped her.

"Before any of that, all of us should get some rest." Lucy heard Laxus say from her other side.

The rest of the Raijinshuu nodded their agreement then went and placed themselves in different spots around the fire. Lucy slid a bit further away from Laxus, but stayed sitting up against the log. Laxus slid off of the log to the ground in front of it with a grunt.

They stayed quiet for a long while, and Lucy was certain that everyone had fallen asleep, but she proven wrong when Laxus spoke.

"I know that you aren't going to join us." Lucy flinched at the words.

"What makes you say that?" She asked in return.

"If you wanted to be around people, you'd have stayed with Wendy at Lamia Scale. Or you'd have gone to join another guild by now."

Lucy couldn't argue his point, she had many friends in other guilds, she could have gone to join any one of them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead of admitting Laxus was right, though, she curled in on herself and suppressed a shiver from the breeze that blew by.

Lucy felt something heavy and warm fall on her, lifting her head and looking at the object, she found it to be Laxus' coat. She glanced over to see Laxus with his chin in his hand looking the other way, a light pink dusting his cheeks. Lucy straightened out the coat on top of her, giggling slightly when she saw that it covered almost her entire body.

"What about all of you?" Lucy found herself asking, her fingers petting the soft fur lining of the jacket. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Laxus shrug.

"Not sure. I don't think any of us want to join a new guild yet." Lucy nodded in understanding.

It was silent for another few minutes, the only noises being the creatures in the surrounding forest and the wind blowing through the trees.

"If you do decide to come with us, I wouldn't be opposed to it. But, I think you'll be fine if you stay on your own. You're already strong, and getting through this will only make you stronger."

When Laxus recieved no answer, he assumed Lucy had fallen asleep and hadn't heard him.

The next morning when Laxus awoke, Lucy wasn't there and his coat was folded over the log. He was only slightly disappointed that Lucy decided to go off on her own, but he knew that she would be fine. He was about to place his hand on the ground to help himself up when he saw a note in the dirt.

"Thank you."

 **I had the beginning of this written forever ago because I was originally going to use it for the Aquarius prompt in LaLu week 2016, but then I got stuck and wrote something else. So, this has been sitting on my computer for over a year, before I realized it could be used for LaLu week 2017, finally finished it up, and now here it is.**

 **I hope you liked it, review and let me know what you all thought.**


	4. ProtectSummer

Day 4 Protect

Day 5 Summer

The area of Magnolia often got the most storms throughout the year in all of Fiore. In some seasons the storms were likely caused by a one or more mage's magic, but in summer, there was never a week that went without a storm, whether they were natural or caused by a mage was anyones guess. Some people have guessed that with at least one of the residents having lightning magic for the past several decades the amount of electricity in the area is what makes thunder storms such a common occurrance in Magnolia.

Even though the citizens of Magnolia were far used to the storms by now, the storm that was currently happening over their city was unlike one that they had seen before. The thunder seemed especially loud, the lightning exeptionally bright, the wind exceedingly strong. Little did the citizens know that this storm was one both magic and natural.

Lucy enjoyed thunder storms, loved them, in fact. Lucy liked sitting in the dark and watching as bright lightning flashes lit up the area she was in, only getting to see whatever was there for mere seconds. She liked leaning against the walls of old buildings and feeling the vibrations run through them when thunder crashed. These storms helped her, the thunder kept her grounded, and the lightning made her focus.

When Lucy heard the telltale rumble of thunder, Lucy was jittery and anxious to get home. As much as she loved the guild, sometimes she just needed a good thunderstorm to help her organize her thoughts or to simply relax, which is something she just can't enjoy while at the guild. It was too loud with chatter, and if a brawl started, she was lucky if she could hear the storm outside.

Lucy began walking over to the Master and Laxus to bid her goodbyes and to say that she was headed home early. She had once tried to leave earlier than she usually did and the guild had a meltdown, thinking something was wrong, or that something was bothering her, so she usually tried to let Mira know, but Mira was busy at the moment, so she told the next person that the guild would listen to.

Just as Lucy reached the two, guild doors flew open. Everyone let out an involuntary shiver at the wind when they all froze at the sound of a group of footsteps stepping onto the wooden floors of the guild. Slowly, the members of the guild turned to look at the stangers, when one of them grinned wickedly.

"We wan' this buildin' f'r our guild. Y'all're gonna hafta leave." A woman with long black hair spoke.

Before Laxus or the Master could say a word, Natsu was running forward shouting, "Like hell we do!"

Natsu's fists lit up as he got close to the woman that spoke. One of the people with the woman, a short, fat man, stepped in between Natsu and her, the man's body beginning to look like the jagged edges of a rock. Natsu's fist hit him, but the man didn't even move, and Natsu's flame went out upon impact, a small scuff mark on the man's cheek.

There was silence throughout the the guild before the strangers began to laugh, and quickly enough, the entire guild was full of broken tables, chairs and other small objects. Lucy only had time to be thankful that Bisca and Alzack had taken Asuka home once the rain started as she was roped into her own fight, literally. Sure, the girl wasn't four years old anymore, but she was still far too young to be involved in a fight between guilds.

The man across from Lucy used whips, just as she did. His, though, had different magical properties than being able to control their direction. When one whip struck her leg, it left a burn, far more serious than one someone would get from a regular whip. When the other hit her arm, a frost began to spread from the center of the attack. She wondered if it was the man's own magic and he used the whips as way to attack at a distance, or if he used magical tools? If so, did he have a separate magic that he could use when disarmed, or did he have no magic? Did he need the whips in the same way she needed her keys?

When Lucy looked around at the other enemies, she saw that most of them, except for maybe five or six, seemed to use tools or weapons rather than magic. Lucy focused back on her opponent, and took a chance. She launched herself forward and used her whip to bind the man's hands together. Once she got close enough, and the man hadn't made any movement to use a different form of magic, Lucy planted one foot on the ground and sent the other into the man's jaw, effectively knocking him out.

Lucy dragged the man to the side of the guild, out of the way from other fighters. After she stood and looked around, there were many others that were finishing up their fights, as well. She saw that Natsu was fighting a man that used guns, the bullets releasing a charge of some kind of magic that seemed to decay the walls behind Natsu. Lucy knew just from watching that Natsu would be better off if he moved around more, but saw that Natsu tried to keep to the one corner of the guild to keep other members of the guild from getting struck by a stray bullet, using his head rather than his instinct.

It was because of how intently Lucy was watching that she saw what was going to happen with complete clarity, her body running forward before she had time to truly think, just as Elfman lifted the person he was fighting. She saw how Elfman threw his opponent just as Natsu's jumped back from an attack. She saw as Natsu's opponent's body twisted just as she was about to shoot his gun again. She was already halfway across the guild before the shot even went off, just barely making it in front of the person the shot was going to hit.

Laxus turned around at the feeling of a body falling against his back to see Lucy beginning to fall to the ground. Laxus wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her descent, a warm liquid oozing over his forearm, before remembering that he was in the middle of a fight and turned around to the woman. The woman looked at Lucy with delight. At the look, Laxus felt his magic surge throughout his body, sending several large bolts of lightning out of his body, yelling as he did so. Fairy Tail members just managed to dodge the lightning. The members of the enemy guild were not so lucky and were on the ground unconcious in seconds.

Any residual magic Laxus had released joined the summer storm, strengthening it greatly, and would continue to do so until he calmed.

"Where is Wendy?" Laxus heard himself yell, picking Lucy up in his arms, a part of her shirt crumbling at the touch.

Wendy rushed through the crowd towards Laxus and Lucy.

She took a look at Lucy's pale face before speaking, "Bring her to the infirmary."

Laxus didn't need to be told twice and took the stairs to the infirmary two at a time. Laxus was gently placing Lucy on one of the medical beds when Wendy entered the room. Wendy quickly washed herself and began examining the wound on Lucy's stomach. Laxus could see that it was browning and releasing a green ooze.

"I need you to leave." Wendy said, taking off her coat.

"What? No, I-"

"Leave." Wendy spoke again as she pushed against Laxus' back and forced him out of the room and shut the door.

When Wendy came out of the infirmary, she graced everyone with a soft, but weary, smile and said that she had dealt with the bullet's magic effect on Lucy's body, and was able to heal the worst of the damage, but Lucy was still in rough shape and wouldn't be up and moving around for a while.

Sometime later, which felt like hours to Laxus, he was finally allowed to enter the infirmary again and settled beside Lucy. Laxus takes shuddering breaths as he reached for Lucy's hand, which was cold against his, "Stupid girl. I'm supposed to protect you." Laxus whispers, fingers catching on the ring he had placed there only a few days before.

Laxus took another shaky breath, stressfully rubbing his eyes with his free hand, just before he felt Lucy's icy fingers twitched in his hand. He took his face out of his hands and looked into Lucy's now open, glazed eyes.

"Dummy, sometimes you need protecting, too."

Laxus felt relief at Lucy's voice, and the town shone under the summer sun.

 **I don't really know how I feel about this one, but I hope that you guys liked it at least. Let me know what you thought.**


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